How to deal with the inevitable AI, under discussion with the ARA

BarcelonaRaise your hand if you use artificial intelligence in your daily activities. This was the question, gently tricked, used by Mariona Ferrer Fornells, a journalist from ARA, to open the high-level debate on AI organized this Thursday by the newspaper, in collaboration with the company Bassols, within the framework of the Ateneu Barcelonès. The trick, of course, is that these two conspicuous acronyms have infiltrated our lives without us often being aware of it, because artificial intelligence comes into play every time we do a Google search, let Netflix recommend a series, or buy something on Amazon.

The event focused on analyzing the present and future opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence, but, as expected, its impact is such that it went beyond the initial framework to also address issues of ethics, regulation, turbocapitalism, and the world of work. Both speakers were authoritative voices: Albert Cuesta, ARA's leading technology expert, and Jordi Urbea, recently appointed CEO of Ogilvy Spain, one of the most important international advertising firms.

One of the aspects of concern is the massive replacement of jobs. And here both experts agreed on a non-apocalyptic vision. According to Urbea, any job that can be performed by an algorithm will be performed by an algorithm. But this means that humans will have to focus their work value—unless they are carpenters or plumbers—on knowing how to interact with AI tools and, above all, on all the skills inherent to humans, especially when it comes to dealing with people.

There was less consensus, however, on the regulation section. While Cuesta advocated for "digital self-defense" and welcomed the EU's steps to try to establish regulations, especially for algorithms that can have direct effects on people's well-being, Urbea noted that the United States and China are racing this race with cars at 200 kilometers per hour, and he struggled to extend it and the endless debates.

The event also addressed the impact on the world of content, and various precautions were pointed out. Cuesta warned that the appearance of objectivity is merely a mirage: "There is no objective AI, because the information they are fed is not objective and has biases." He added: "In the end, a person has decided what information they are fed and how they operate with this information, because an algorithm is nothing more than a cooking recipe, designed by a person." Just because it's invisible doesn't mean that person, with all their biases, doesn't exist.

Urbea welcomes the impact of AI on advertising, because it allows every advertiser's dream: to be able to design a personalized message down to the individual. However, he issues a warning: "It's one thing to use that capability to sell a car, and another to promote a political or religious message. We'll have to be very careful with this." The executive explained that, out of ethical concerns, his company doesn't take on political advertising campaigns because it knows how easy it is to manipulate them.

The next step for advertising, according to Cuesta, is for ads to begin "contaminating" chatbot results, so that when you ask, for example, which Phillips screwdriver you should buy, the answer is ranked according to the brand that paid the most to be ranked higher. The horizon outlined was one of total revolution, but with the minimal consolation that there was still room for strictly human connection, such as the one that occurred, on a rainy Thursday afternoon, between the hundred or so readers and subscribers who wanted to follow this new ARA debate in person and who, paraphrasing Joan Fuster, stayed with us for the reason that they didn't stay with us.